SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 3 – Edgardo Ponce
appeared on charges of using
cocaine and meth on September
3 before
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Paul A.
Engelmayer.
Probation had
initially
proposed three
months of
additional
incarceration
then two more
years of
supervised
release. But
both the
government and
Judge
Engelmayer
said, in
essence,
what's the
point?

The way Judge
Engelmayer
explained it
was as a waste
of Probation's
resources,
supervising a
person who
simply will
not stop
taking drugs.
(Ponce's
lawyer blamed
the relapse on
both the death
of his mother
in Puerto Rico
and him being
blocked from
traveling
there.)

Judge
Engelmayer
said the
message could
not be,
however, that
by failing to
comply one
gets out of
Supervision.
So instead of
three months,
he imposed six
months and
wished Ponce
well.

In the trial of
US v. Jason Polanco many
videos of store robberies in
masks were shown on June 19,
complete with play by play by
one of the now unmasked
participants, Joshua Kemp.
Hours later a higher profile
defendant scheduled for the
same courtroom had a more
effective mask: his unnumbered
case was quietly adjourned,
see below.

The
Polanco jury's decision, too,
was quiet for a while. Inner
City Press ran to Judge
Engelmayer's court room from another
sentencing only to hear
the Judge scheduling Polanco's
sentencing, seemingly for
December 19. Hours later this:
"JASON POLANCO, a/k/a “Jin,”
a/k/a “Wolfman,” was found
guilty today of the August 31,
2014, murder of Shawn Ross,
a/k/a “S.B.,” on Decatur
Avenue in the Bronx, as well
as participating in a
narcotics conspiracy, a
robbery conspiracy, the
robbery of a Citgo gas station
in the Bronx, and the
discharge of a firearm in
connection with the Citgo
robbery. A jury
convicted POLANCO today on all
six counts of the Indictment
following a one-week trial
before U.S. District Judge
Paul A. Engelmayer.... The
case is being handled by the
Office’s Violent and Organized
Crime Unit. Assistant
U.S. Attorneys Celia V. Cohen,
Danielle R. Sassoon, and Gina
Castellano are in charge of
the prosecution."

On June
25 in the early afternoon the
parties agreed that a video,
Government Exhibit 609 which
has yet to be put online,
could be sent in to the jury
without any formal comment.
Then, after telling the court
reporter "off the record,"
Judge Engelmayer asked the
lawyers if the video really
showed, as it seemed, people
ordering food while in the
presence of a dead body.

Yes, was
the consensus. This was just
after Judge Engelmayer had
told the lawyers in the case
to go out to lunch in shift,
or to bring lunch into the
courtroom as long as it would
not be visible to the jurors
if and when they came back.
And when would that be? How
could the Press be notified?

On June 24
in the middle of closing
arguments the defense objected
to the government's use of
propensity, using the phrase
"as part of his violence." Judge
Engelmayer
quickly overruled
the objection,
saying that
the reference
to violence
came from evidence
in the trial.

On June 21
Polanco's lawyer Donna R.
Newman argued in writing and
then in person to Judge
Engelmayer
that based in
part on Kemp's
testimony he
should adopt
the
"multi-conspiracy"
charge used by
his follow
SDNY Judge J.
Paul Oetken in
US v.
Polanco,
16-Cr-826
(PAE) at Dkt.
#388.

In a charging
conference
that ran past
noon and then
1 pm, Newman
and the
Assistant US
Attorney urged
changes to
Judge Engelmeyer's
charging. One
issue was
whether to
name to the
jury alleged
conspiracy
members who
had their
names redacted
in the
indictment
given to the
jury. One of
them, it emerged
on June 21, is
dead and
will not be
named.

Like a
catcher
and pitcher on
the mound or
a basement
manager, Judge
Engelmayer
and his law
clerk
whispered
behind their hands
as those at
the defense
table tried to
come up with
proposed
language. The
defendant
Jason Polanco,
in a
suit with a fashionable
haircut,
did not appear
to be
consulted. In
the hall the
talk was of
him shooting
police. But
the what
the jury hears
is what was
at issue
Friday.

Things got
human, just
among lawyers
and the judge.
After telling
the court
reporter "off
the record,"
Judge Engelmayer
apologized for
raising
his voice.
Talk then turned
back to a
single block
of Decatur
Avenue in The
Bronx, between
194th and
195th Street.

In the
various
courtrooms of
the SDNY one
could
construct a
map of The Bronx,
replete with
disparities in
sentencing. It is
a project
Inner City
Press is
considering
for this
summer, perched
over the PACER
terminal in
the Press
Room, while
some sentencings
like one on
June 17 at 3
pm before
Judge Lorna G. Schofield
are not
disclosed in
the daily
calendar, or
even upon request.
We'll have
more on this.

On June
19 in Bureau of Prison blues
in the late morning, Kemp
described buying Halloween
masks on Fordham Road and
targeting a liquor store in
Washington Heights.

In
the courtroom of Judge
Engelmayer the jurors started
intently at their screens as
Kemp chased a liquor store
worker. The defendant,
presumably, pushed a liquor
store customer to the ground.
Later they ran off down the
sidewalk. Today everything is
filmed.

But there
are still disputes. Polanco's
lawyer Donna R. Newman on June
18 wrote to Judge Engelmayer
about "the substantive Hobbs
Act robbery of a Citgo station
on November 24, 2014," saying
that "there is no
disinterested eyewitness
identification of Mr. Polanco,
no DNA, no fingerprints, and
nothing that links Mr. Polanco
to these robberies other than
the word of a cooperating
witness, Joshua Kemp."

Inner City
Press has asked the US
Attorney's Office for the
government exhibits. Later on
June 19, a plea that Judge
Engelmayer was supposed to
take in US v Meyers, initially
with no case number, was
abruptly postponed. But Inner
City Press is on the
case - on June 20 at 4 pm
the talk in Judge
Engelmayer's courtroom was
all Palanco and not the
"disappeared" case, see
below, @InnerCityPressand
the new@SDNYLIVE:

The
US has quietly filed a
criminal antitrust case
against Banca IMI trader Larry
D. Meyers, concealing the case
number and adjourning what was
listed as a plea proceeding on
June 19 before Judge Paul A.
Engelmayer of the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York,
Inner City
Press can
report.

The case
involves
violations
with the
Sherman Act
with respect
to American
Depository
Receipts. It
is a quiet
part of a larger
case.

Back on 9 May
2019 DOJ
Antitrust
Division
criminal chief
James J.
Fredricks
signed a
"Notice of
Intent to File
An
Information"
against
Meyers.
Through
so-called
"Wheel B" it
was assigned
to SDNY Judge
Engelmayer, by
Magistrate
Judge Ona T.
Wang.

On
June 5 - it is
not clear
where -
Meyers and his
attorney Dan
Portnov
"waive[d] in
open court
prosecution by
indictment and
consent[ed]
that the
proceeding may
be by
information
instead of by
indictment."

That way,
instead of
through the
more public
Magistrates
Court, Meyers'
presentment
was before
Judge
Engelmayer,
with a Docket
Number listed
as "19-CR-
[blank],"
quickly
released on
$100,000 bond,
travel
restricted to
the US and
Ireland unlike
most
defendants
confined to
two or three
US Districts.

This is the
VIP aisle of
indictments,
with the DOJ
helping to
avoid any
possible perp
walk.

And so it was
that while the
week's SDNY
"Civil and
Criminal
Proceedings
Calendar" for
the week of
06/17/19
listed on June
19 at 5 pm a
plea before
Judge
Engelmayer in
USA v. Meyers,
19-cr-[blank],
the courtroom
of Judge
Engelmayer
where Inner
City Press had
been earlier
in the day on
a Hobbs Act
robbery trial
was empty.

There was no
sign on the
door
explaining
why, as was
done for
example on the
door
of Judge
Deborah Batts
about Michael
Avenatti.
There are VIP
lines, and vip
lines.

Currently
the docket
does not show
where the next
proceeding
will take
place. But
Inner City
Press believes
it knows.
Watch this
site - and for
more, see its
Patreon, here.

By
contrast the
last
SDNY
Magistrates
Court case on
June 19
before
Magistrate
Judge Sarah
Netburn seemed
straightforward.
Ricardo Reynoso,
resident of Massachusetts,
had been
arrested at
11:30 am that
day in
Connecticut.
Judge Netburn
released him
on $75,000
bond.

Judge
Netburn,
who the
previous day
sealed and
delayed
docketing on a money
laundering
case from New
Jersey
completing the
tri-state
trifecta, told
Ricardo Reynoso about
a program she and
another
SDNY judge
(apparently
SDNY Chief
Judge Collen
McMahon)
run. It is
called Young
Adult
Opportunity
Program.

Because
Inner City
Press is not
*only* about
pushing for
transparency,
for example
of the a suddenly
sealed
sentencing
before Judge
Lorna G.
Schofield on
June 17,
we link to this
program here.
It's all to
the good. So is
transparency,
including on
warrants.
We'll have
more on this.

***

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